


In Fits and Stutters

by Eldabe



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Family, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-12
Updated: 2012-03-12
Packaged: 2017-11-01 21:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eldabe/pseuds/Eldabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhiannon isn't sure she wants her life to change just yet. Ianto knows she's making the wrong decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Fits and Stutters

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [miss_bekahrose](miss_bekahrose.livejournal.com)'s prompt for the [tw_femficfest](tw_femficfest.livejournal.com%20) 2011\. "Rhiannon: Her relationship with Ianto: past/present (at time of/before CoE Day 4)"
> 
> Originally posted on my livejournal [here](http://eldarwannabe.livejournal.com/112254.html).

Rhiannon sat on the edge of the toilet, staring at the test. The two lines stared back at her, bold as brass and pretty fucking clear. She wasn't sure how to react yet, but she very much wanted to push it in someone's face and inform them very loudly that she had been _careful_ , thank you, condoms and birth control and all that shit. Rhiannon Jones didn't want any babies, not now. She was 19 for fucks sake, and Johnny just 20. They'd barely spoken about marriage. She was pretty sure about him, but men were so hard to pin down, and Rhiannon knew that you had to be careful, because you didn't know who someone was going to turn into, ten years down the line. 

THUMP. THUMP. 

"Rhi, are you giving me a lift or not? If I'm too late it's not fucking worth the time. I'll call in ill."

Rhiannon looked at the stick, then stood up to open the door. Ianto was slouching in his uniform, shirt untucked and hair in that style all the boys were doing now. She was still holding the stick in her hand, wordless. 

Ianto's eyes narrowed and he straightened slightly. "Rhi? What-" his eyes hit the pregnancy test and widened. He grabbed her arm, twisting it closer to see the results. 

"Shit." he breathed. 

Rhiannon just looked at him, helplessly. Dad was at work, and Johnny was hopefully looking for a job today. Ianto's eyes flickered to her stomach, and he dropped her wrist. 

"What are you going to do with it?" He asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. He was forming them into fists, Rhiannon knew. He didn't like Johnny at all, and now...

"It's not an it, Ianto. It's a baby."

He jerked his head to the side, quick denial. "Not yet."

Rhiannon looked at the lines again. She wasn't very religious anymore. A vague belief in Mam's God, who was mostly benevolent on good days, and was terrifyingly vengeful and fierce on the bad ones. They didn't go to church very much now. But still, not an "it." A baby.

She walked back into the loo and dropped the stick into the bin. She washed her hands slowly, aware of Ianto's heavy gaze.

She touched her stomach. "I'm keeping her. Or him. The baby, I'm going to keep the baby." 

Ianto's face crumpled, a little bit. His eyes slid away from her, staring at the line where the mismatched paint on the wall showed. 

"What...what about Johnny?"

Rhiannon sighed. "I'm going to call him, I suppose. We have nine months now? A little less."

"You're not-you can't marry Johnny, Rhi! You're-He's not worth a dozen of you."

Ianto's eyes were back up now, blazing. Rhiannon felt a little sad and sick inside. (A small part of her mind wondered if that was the baby already.)

"I love him enough, Ianto. And it's our choice." 

Ianto's eyes darted around, his hands out of his pockets now, making helpless, awkward, half-abandoned gestures.

"Fine, then. I just-fine."

He spun around and clattered down the stairs and out the door. 

When he crept back in past three, he left a bar of Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut - Rhiannon's favorite - on her nightstand. She stared at it after the door to her room creaked shut. 

He must have nicked it, because he didn't have any spending money that she didn't give to him. But he was trying to apologize the only way he could figure out how. Rhiannon wrapped her arms around her stomach and curled up in a ball to hold in the teary gasps rising in the back of her throat as the door to Ianto's room creaked open and then quietly clicked shut.


End file.
